We took the fast ferry from Crete and landed in Santorini around 10:00am, disembarking to find our driver waiting for us. We crawled up the switchback road behind an endless line of traffic. The corners were so tight that many vehicles had to wait to give way to the multitude of tourist buses.

We drove along the top of the mountain, passing the city of Fire before arriving an hour later at our destination of Oia. This place is the quintessential Santorini town of bright white buildings with electric blue doors and shutters and churches with blue domes.

We were met by our porter, who threw one suitcase over his right shoulder, holding a second suitcase in his right hand, with a third in his left hand as he descended the 100 or so steps down to our hotel. When we arrived, we asked our concierge, Vasili, what the porters name was. Dennis interjected with “Hercules”.

Our suite wasn’t ready, so we left the luggage and walked back up to the main street to look around. It was too early for lunch, so we found a restaurant overlooking the sea and ordered beer and cocktails. It was so lovely sitting in the shade in the hot weather, with a cold drink, enjoying the expansive views across the sea. We enjoyed it so much we ended up staying to order lunch there.

When Vasili messaged me to say that our accommodation was ready, we headed back to the hotel. We had booked a three-bedroom suite with a private pool and it was truly magnificent. It was basically a house built into a cave, with three bedrooms, each with a private ensuite. A private balcony in front had a pool with a cave on one end containing a daybed, all overlooking the magnificent views of the sea, islands scattered all around with cascading white houses spreading over their peaks like snow.

We wasted no time in getting into our togs and soaking in the pool. The boys put their pink speedos on again (thanks Rob) and the girls were all wearing blue bathers, so with the boys in pink and the girls in blue, we threw tradition (and dignity) to the wind.

Santorini is actually the rim of an ancient volcano. During the Minoan civilisation it was a mountain and active volcano. 3,600 years ago it erupted, the entire mountain exploding in one of the largest volcanic events in human history. It devastated cities not only on Santorini, but on all of the surrounding islands as well. This catastrophic event caused tsunamis and earthquakes, destroying agriculture as far away as Crete, 141 kilometres away. Its effects were felt as far away as Egypt and even China. A caldera formed as the volcano collapsed into the sea, the walls jutting up from the ocean. The cities of Santorini are built on the peaks of the rim, which embrace the sea-filled caldera like a huge, curved mountain range.

The views from our room and the main street of Oia faced this incredible view. We wandered along the main street enjoying the scenery as we made our way to a traditional Greek tavern for dinner. We enjoyed moussaka, lamb and various other dishes while musicians played traditional Greek music. After dinner, the views at night were just as spectacular, with the layered houses cascading down the slopes of the caldera walls, lit up into the distance.

The next morning, we woke and Vasili served us breakfast on our balcony. Divine Greek yoghurt, paired with a massive fresh fruit platter, plus coffee, omelettes and of course that magnificent, fresh Greek orange juice. All eaten while overlooking that impressive caldera. A moment worth bottling. As the weather warmed up, we didn’t need much encouragement to hang around the pool for the morning. Poor Caitlynne had developed bronchitis and had to visit the local doctor, who put her on a steroid pump. She felt a little better when she returned.

After lunch, we caught a transfer to another port, where hundreds of yachts and catamarans were moored. We boarded a catamaran with a bunch of other people and headed off into the Mediterranean Sea. A couple of girls on the boat were the typical tik-tokkers wearing tiny G-strings, who never had a photo taken together, preferring to do the standard single person shots in various poses. This included the “look back over your shoulder and pout”, the “place your tongue on your top lip and look up under your giant false eyelashes”, the “point your toe and throw your head back ala Flashdance”, etc. One of them had lips so full of collagen, that I advised Lidia to run for her if the boat capsized, since she had a flotation device on her face.

We spent the whole afternoon sailing around to various swimming spots where we floated in the blue Mediterranean waters, Dennis and Rob bombing into the water off the side of the boat. We met some lovely, young American people, who universally decided we were the coolest people on the boat, and fair enough too. This is despite the fact that one young couple asked Linda if she liked the American accent, to which she replied “To be honest, I don’t like it”!

One of the crew, Orpheus, cooked us up an amazing barbeque lunch. We then went to enjoy the spectacular sunset before heading back to port. Apparently, there are 500 yachts and catamarans on the island and I think they were all following us as we went back to port since there was a veritable flotilla behind us all the way.

The next morning, we had a free day, so after our magnificent breakfast on our balcony, we all went our separate ways to do a bit of shopping and enjoy the scenery. This, of course, alternated with floating around in our pool with a view. At one point, the girls were on the balcony discussing shopping, or makeup or something to that effect and the boys were in the pool. I remarked to the boys that it’s amazing listening to the difference between the girl’s conversation and the boys. Dennis and Rob agreed wholeheartedly, and then proceeded to hold up their hands in front of their faces and chat to each other about when they last trimmed their fingernails. Obviously, I’m the only real man on this trip.

That night we walked to a nearby town called Finikia, and ate at a restaurant recommended to us by Vasili called Lefkes. We enjoyed the best meal of our trip so far which included moussaka balls, baked calamari, succulent lamb and the best chorizo I’ve ever tasted. All this while enjoying a beautiful wine as the sun set on our last night in Santorini, painting the sky in a palette of blues, oranges and deep reds.